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How many engineers does WeWork actually employ though? From everything I've read on here they're not really a tech company. I can't imagine that, even if it all

How many engineers does WeWork actually employ though? From everything I've read on here they're not really a tech company. I can't imagine that, even if it all goes up in flames, there will be many SWEs looking for new jobs from this. Uber is another story. They've got a sizeable engineering force.

bjtonline 7y ago
WeWork has done a significant amount of hiring in New York City for SWEs with very generous compensation, and honestly hasn't really had much for them to do.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
  Should have made them get their realtor licenses.
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  Any idea how much the actual salary for these positions was vs the stock component which may well be worth nothing?
martinald 7y ago
At least 500 doing a quick search for 'software engineer' at 'wework'. Probably over 1000 for different job titles, etc.
- Marazan 7y ago
  That just seems mind boggling to me.
- jannotti 7y ago
  I wonder how many of them are independent founders being facetious. They might be, literally, a software enegineer who is "at" wework.
puranjay 7y ago
I honestly think Uber has over-invested in engineering. The problem they're trying to solve isn't so complicated that it needs their current engineering force. They don't have to add new features at as rapid a pace as a true software-focused company like, say, Stripe.
- jnwatson 7y ago
  Absolutely. They need a huge operations and driver support/sales team, but R&D not so much, outside of the self-driving money pit.
- PMan74 7y ago
  From an external viewpoint stuff like building your own internal chat application seems like a "too many engineers with too little to do" kid of decision. https://eng.uber.com/uchat/ https://eng.uber.com/uchat/
  - pram 7y ago
    The chat program they’re referring to in the beginning was HipChat, which really was a steaming pile of crap. Uber was our largest user and they constantly brought the entire service down. IDK if making their own was the right solution, but it was driven by necessity and not boredom I assure you.
    - user5994461 7y ago
      The largest user of HipChat, really? Uber must have been something like 5k-15k employees at that time. I thought HipChat was used in F500, much larger than that. Anyway, HipChat was bought and killed by Slack. They avoided a dying product by accident.
      - pram 7y ago
        Yes. It seemed like every single one of their drivers was getting messages from one of their chat rooms in HipChat. It was like 25k people in a single room iirc. They seemed to be using it for notifications or something? At any rate HipChat was already dead prior to the sale. Atlassian made a new program from scratch called Stride which was its own little awful can of worms.
acjohnson55 7y ago
They're a tech company in the sense that their internal and client-facing operations are enabled by custom tech, and they have the scale that that stuff needs to be pretty mature. But I wouldn't necessarily assume a WeWork engineer is doing cutting-edge stuff (not that they're not; I just wouldn't assume it).
- greenyoda 7y ago
  > They're a tech company in the sense that their internal and client-facing operations are enabled by custom tech... If that's the definition of a tech company, then Citibank, United Airlines and Fedex are also tech companies.
  - acjohnson55 7y ago
    Arguably, yes. I don't think that's exclusive of the other types of company you can be.
untog 7y ago
Compared to Uber they're still small. But I recall an article not so long ago talking about the tracking WeWork had installed in their offices that gave them startling insights like "people tend to drink more coffee in the mornings". They've been just as guilty as any of hiring a bunch of developers just so they can call themselves a "tech company".
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  > that gave them startling insights like "people tend to drink more coffee in the mornings". To play devil's advocate a bit, isn't this how science works? If you're not checking the obvious, you won't discover that people actually drink more coffee on the afternoon, or what have you.
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    Personally, I generally drink no more than one medium/large coffee all day, but sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, and sometimes I spend all day drinking it and reheating it, and still have some left when I go home. I guess I kind of wait until I feel particularly down and tired, but otherwise well hydrated, and that's when I want coffee, but not always at the same time of day.

bjtonline 7y ago

WeWork has done a significant amount of hiring in New York City for SWEs with very generous compensation, and honestly hasn't really had much for them to do.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
Should have made them get their realtor licenses.
CydeWeys 7y ago
Any idea how much the actual salary for these positions was vs the stock component which may well be worth nothing?

martinald 7y ago

At least 500 doing a quick search for 'software engineer' at 'wework'. Probably over 1000 for different job titles, etc.

Marazan 7y ago
That just seems mind boggling to me.
jannotti 7y ago
I wonder how many of them are independent founders being facetious. They might be, literally, a software enegineer who is "at" wework.

puranjay 7y ago

I honestly think Uber has over-invested in engineering. The problem they're trying to solve isn't so complicated that it needs their current engineering force. They don't have to add new features at as rapid a pace as a true software-focused company like, say, Stripe.

jnwatson 7y ago
Absolutely. They need a huge operations and driver support/sales team, but R&D not so much, outside of the self-driving money pit.
PMan74 7y ago
From an external viewpoint stuff like building your own internal chat application seems like a "too many engineers with too little to do" kid of decision. https://eng.uber.com/uchat/ https://eng.uber.com/uchat/
- pram 7y ago
  The chat program they’re referring to in the beginning was HipChat, which really was a steaming pile of crap. Uber was our largest user and they constantly brought the entire service down. IDK if making their own was the right solution, but it was driven by necessity and not boredom I assure you.
  - user5994461 7y ago
    The largest user of HipChat, really? Uber must have been something like 5k-15k employees at that time. I thought HipChat was used in F500, much larger than that. Anyway, HipChat was bought and killed by Slack. They avoided a dying product by accident.
    - pram 7y ago
      Yes. It seemed like every single one of their drivers was getting messages from one of their chat rooms in HipChat. It was like 25k people in a single room iirc. They seemed to be using it for notifications or something? At any rate HipChat was already dead prior to the sale. Atlassian made a new program from scratch called Stride which was its own little awful can of worms.

acjohnson55 7y ago

They're a tech company in the sense that their internal and client-facing operations are enabled by custom tech, and they have the scale that that stuff needs to be pretty mature. But I wouldn't necessarily assume a WeWork engineer is doing cutting-edge stuff (not that they're not; I just wouldn't assume it).

greenyoda 7y ago
> They're a tech company in the sense that their internal and client-facing operations are enabled by custom tech... If that's the definition of a tech company, then Citibank, United Airlines and Fedex are also tech companies.
- acjohnson55 7y ago
  Arguably, yes. I don't think that's exclusive of the other types of company you can be.

untog 7y ago

Compared to Uber they're still small. But I recall an article not so long ago talking about the tracking WeWork had installed in their offices that gave them startling insights like "people tend to drink more coffee in the mornings". They've been just as guilty as any of hiring a bunch of developers just so they can call themselves a "tech company".

Wowfunhappy 7y ago
> that gave them startling insights like "people tend to drink more coffee in the mornings". To play devil's advocate a bit, isn't this how science works? If you're not checking the obvious, you won't discover that people actually drink more coffee on the afternoon, or what have you.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  Personally, I generally drink no more than one medium/large coffee all day, but sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, and sometimes I spend all day drinking it and reheating it, and still have some left when I go home. I guess I kind of wait until I feel particularly down and tired, but otherwise well hydrated, and that's when I want coffee, but not always at the same time of day.